


You Keep Me Here

by nekojita



Series: Dragon!Andrew [5]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Curses, F/M, Fantasy AU, M/M, Magic, Most of the time, andrew is still bigger than everyone else, andrew's a dragon, at least part of the time, matt the handyman, neil puts up with a lot, sorta - Freeform, still bribery through dubious baking, this turned out a bit fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-09-02 15:40:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8672995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nekojita/pseuds/nekojita
Summary: A continuation of my fairytale/fantasy AU 'Carry You' - Andrew is still under a curse, Neil discovers an unpleasant facet of his heritage and Matt, their unplanned 'house guest', is proving rather useful in fixing up a rundown castle. Oh, and Riko continues to show why not all princes are indeed charming.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I have to admit, this part of the story just twisted on me. I was planning on getting to certain points in the plot eventually, but a couple of them just were like 'no, NOW'. All righty then. Hopefully it makes sense. 
> 
> Oh, and since this is a fantasy (sorta medieval) world, there's some old-fashioned style food-prep going on here. In other words, if you have problems with how meat eaters handle/get their food... there might be a rough spot or two in the fic. Nothing graphic, though.  
> *******

 

*******

Neil stared at the now patched hole in the roof and blinked a couple of times. "That's... I'm a bit envious, I'll admit." Envious of people who had talents that could do things other than destroy, who knew more than death and destruction, lies and illusions. Even Andrew's fire magic provided warmth and protection - when he wasn't in a snit.

Matt chuckled as he dusted off his hands. "I'm just glad that there's enough raw material lying around so I can patch up all the holes and everything. I can't do much unless there's stuff on hand."

"We've just left it where it's fallen, for the most part," Neil admitted. "Other than sweeping it out of the way." Anything of value had been taken away by the original owners or stripped away over the centuries, and no one had bothered with the abandoned stone structure until Andrew had needed a new home. Andrew and Neil. After his first couple of months at the castle, Neil had moved down to the first floor and so hadn't been bothered with the decaying upper level - well, not _too_ much, since eventually it would crash down on their heads, but there wasn't much he or Andrew could do about it. Now Matt was spending the winter tending to the place, fixing the holes in the roof, reinforcing the walls and smoothing out the cracked plaster with his earth elemental talent. "We - well, _I_ really appreciate you doing this."

"It's the least I can do, considering how I'm crashing here for so long," Matt said with a wide grin. "It keeps me busy."

It also kept him mostly out of Andrew's way during the day, which was a good thing. Andrew wasn't pleased with the knight's extended stay, even if it wasn't Matt's fault. Well, mostly wasn't Matt's fault. He should have left with Nicky and Aaron but had dragged his feet, wanting to remain a few more days and 'study' Andrew for Renee and Allison, certain he could gather some more information for the paladin and air elemental to help speed up the removal of Andrew's curse, and then the unexpected snowstorm had come that had sealed off the mountain for winter. He was fortunate enough that he could get a message back to his fellow Palmetto knights that he was stuck at the old castle until things thawed out enough for him to return to the valley below with his horse. In other words, a couple of months at least.

Andrew was _not_ happy.

Neil was getting used to the cold baths by now, even if he failed to see how _any_ of this was his fault. At least his father's blood helped to keep him from falling sick due to the lack of hot water, much like it had helped him to heal from all the - "So, dinner? Let's go see what we can find?" he asked Matt as a distraction from those painful thoughts.

Matt's grin grew wider. "Great! It’ll be nice to get out for a little bit. Let me get my stuff."

As grateful as he was for Matt fixing up the outpost, Neil had to admit that spring or an early thaw couldn't come fast enough; Matt was a very nice guy and he did his best to make Neil feel comfortable around him, but much like Nicky, he was best taken in small doses. Neil just wanted things to go back to the way they were, to _normal_ , when it was him and Andrew in the castle by themselves. When they could spend the day without talking, if they wanted, just curled up in the main room while Andrew half-dozed and Neil played with his lover's wing or tail, or when Andrew stretched out in the kitchen while Neil attempted to figure out some new pie or bread recipe. There hadn't been any days like that in a while, not when Matt was stomping around the place asking questions and laughing and... nice guy, but he didn't understand 'quiet' and he didn't understand 'third wheel'.

He was also putting a strain on their food reserves, which had been stocked for a normal winter for two... er... 'people'. For a person and a cursed ‘dragon’.  Now Neil and Matt had to go out to forage or hunt down food in the middle of winter to supplement their pantry, which only added to the tense air between Neil and Andrew; Andrew disliked Neil going out so much, especially in Matt's company, but he couldn't follow Neil all the time because his presence would scare away the prey.

Ideally, Neil would go out by himself since he'd been taught by his mother how to set the snares and traps, since he was the one with the hunting skills because - since he best knew how to bring home the food, but Matt at least provided some 'protection', in Andrew's mind (that had led to yet another fight, another couple of days of cold baths, and Neil casting a spell that had actually singed Andrew's scales as well as shattered a few windows. Matt hadn't asked any questions while he repaired them, but then again between the constant sparks Andrew exhaled and the silver glow in Neil's eyes, he probably could figure out a few things - including that it was best to be quiet just then).

Neil knew that he hadn't lived the most righteous of lives, that there'd been the lying and stealing and - there were a lot of black marks against him, and that wasn't _even_ taking into account his father's blood. But it wasn't all his fault, not when it was how he'd been raised, when it had been the only life he'd known for so long. He'd done his best to leave it all that behind when he'd given up his family name, when he'd become 'Neil'. So really, a _dragon_? He had to go and fall for a stubborn asshole cursed into a dragon? With all the possessive, protective, hoarding instincts thrown in?

Fate hated him.

He and Matt were bundled up against the cold and stomping through the snow (yet another couple of inches dumped overnight, with no sign of a thaw in sight, of course), where Matt had to help Neil a few times because of the higher drifts. Getting tired both from being lifted about as if he was a child and drudging through the snow, Neil was about to blast the white stuff out of his way then they finally made it to one of the snares he'd set up the day before, and he was pleased to see that there was a plump rabbit in it. Matt winced and looked away while Neil took care of the animal, and they went on to the next one, which was empty, and then the third, which revealed a small ferret that Neil allowed Matt to tend to before setting free. The final snare was another rabbit, so they were able to head back to the castle, drenched from sweat and melted snow, and exhausted from having to fight their way through the drifts for almost an hour.

"At least it's enough for dinner," Matt said with too much exuberance, while Neil just shook his head at the thought of having to prep the things. He'd gotten a bit soft in the last few years, between 'living' at the Raven’s Nest and then here, where he mostly foraged fruit and vegetables or fished if he wanted any meat. The last time he'd dealt with stuff like this had been when he was on the run with his mother, when they would spend weeks out in the less inhabited areas in an attempt to avoid his father's people.

He was getting tired of the old memories coming to the surface that day; that was another bad thing about Matt's presence - the knight made him remember too much about 'Nathaniel', about what lay waiting down in the valley and the rest of the world. Neil much preferred the world he'd made here with Andrew.

"It would be enough for a few meals, if you didn't eat so much," he complained as they crossed the wards guarding the old castle, and he wasn't surprised to find his lover waiting for them in the snow-covered courtyard. "I see you're finally up," he called out.

/You went outside./ Andrew's disapproval was evident in his mental voice, even without seeing the smoke trailing from his flared nostrils.

"Uhm...."

"Why don't you take this inside?" Neil handed Matt his wet cloak but kept hold of the rabbits. "I'll be in when I finish up."

"All right." Matt motioned toward the west wing of the mountain fort. "I'll get started on those floorboards, now that I know there's something good for dinner."

That was giving Neil a bit too much credit, but whatever got the knight out of Andrew's sight the fastest. Neil waited until Matt was gone then regarded his lover. "Bad nap or something? Stray cloud wipe out your sunbeam?"

Andrew's tail tapped against the ground, which sent some of the snow flying. /You went out without telling me./

"I told you this morning that we needed some food and that I'd be checking the snares. It's not my fault you were sulking at the time and didn't pay attention to me," Neil reminded the tyrant as he went over to the spot where he took care of cleaning the catches, pulling out his knife as he walked. He braced himself to wash his hands and the blade in some ice-cold water pulled up from the well, and kept the rest for when he was done.

/I wasn't sulking./ Andrew's tail lashed out dangerously close to Neil's feet while he skinned a rabbit.

Gritting his teeth together, Neil waited until he was done with the one before he spoke. "You refused to speak to me and singed my favorite sweater. How would _you_ describe it? Petty?"

Andrew let out a puff of smoke, which made Neil cough and have to pause in what he was doing. If it wasn't for the fact that Andrew's large body provided some much needed warmth, that sending him away would just make everything that much worse and that Neil actually missed spending time with the bastard, he'd tell his lover to fuck off. "Can you be any more immature?"

/Is that a challenge?/

Neil decided to keep quiet after that.

He finished with the rabbits then used his talent and the water to clean up everything, and took the carcasses as well as the hides inside to the kitchen. Matt was using his talent to cure the hides, something about a gift for Dan, so he set them near the door before he began chopping up the meat to go into what should be a semi-decent stew (it would stretch out the meals the most). While he worked, Andrew curled up behind him, a silent but welcome presence who appeared half-asleep but whose tail was in constant contact with some part of Neil at all times. Neil didn't say anything about it, just allowed the prehensile appendage to remain wrapped around his ankle or wrist or waist and worked around it.

Once that was done, he patted the tail around his waist and jerked his head toward the larder. “Let me go or come on,” he told his lover, and sighed when he was carried over to the small storage room. _Someone’s_ hoarding instincts were going strong, weren’t they? It made him feel a little bad for leaving without saying anything, but dammit, he wasn’t helpless. He could look out for himself, and it was bad enough to have a tall, talkative knight trailing after him all the time.

Neil pushed aside the annoyance and grabbed at the ingredients he needed to make a couple of tarts; they didn’t have many preserves left, and he was saving the last few baskets of apples for an ‘emergency’, so no pies unless absolutely necessary. But he could manage a couple of small tarts to try to cheer up a certain scaly tyrant, and he smiled when he felt Andrew’s tail twitch around his waist when he began to roll out the dough. Once everything was in the oven, he cleaned up his mess (the water warmed up from the oven) and then gave his lover a hopeful look. “So… a bath?”

Andrew lifted him up into the air and let him dangle for several seconds before he answered. /Only if you read to me before dinner./

“It’s a deal,” Neil said with a pleased smile, and allowed himself to be carried off to the bathing room. There was plenty of water on hand because of the snow, and as soon as Andrew heated up enough, Neil shed his clothes and scrubbed off the day’s dirt and sweat before soaking in the copper tub for at least ten minutes. He would have liked for it to have been longer, but there was no telling when Matt would be done with the floorboards.

He wore an old robe to their room so he could put on some clean clothes, and then it was back to the main hall where the afternoon sun was ‘perfect’ in Andrew’s opinion and they could curl up in front of the large windows while Neil read to the lazy bastard. Despite the book not being one of his favorites (he swore that Andrew picked the driest of novels for him to read), Neil found himself unable to stop smiling, found himself happy to be tucked against Andrew’s almost too-warm side. He was at peace hearing his lover’s heartbeat, at feeling each inhale and exhale, at the soft, almost silk-like wing draped over him as if a warm blanket.

Neil - _Nathaniel_ could have an extravagant castle, could have numerous titles and endless servants and never want for a thing (corporeal things, that was. Trinkets. Baubles and the such). He could be wealthy and feared and pampered (by most) and all it would cost him was his pride and his dignity. His soul. His freedom. Some people would consider it a worthy trade.

All _Neil_ wanted was this – was this rundown old outpost and days spent with Andrew, was his lover’s caustic voice in his head tearing apart a pathetic plot and weak characterization while the rest of the world seemed so far away, was the knowledge that when the sun went down, his lover could hold him close and break him apart in the most wonderful of ways. Or just tell him to shut up and go to sleep, strong human arms wrapped around him. It didn’t matter to Neil, as long as Andrew was with him.

/You’re not reading,/ Andrew chided.

“I think I’ve been stunned senseless by the main character’s actions,” Neil joked as he held up the book a bit higher.

/To be stunned senseless, you have to have sense in the first place,/ Andrew was ‘so kind’ to point out, even as his wing hugged a little tighter around Neil.

“Just how good are you at getting that food out of the oven again, huh? Mr. No Opposable Thumbs?” Neil asked as he glared at his lover. “Oh, such a shame, those tarts burning.”

Andrew blew smoke in his face, and when Neil took to spluttering for air, wrapped his tail around Neil’s left ankle and hoisted him up off the floor. /Who needs thumbs?/

“Oh _fuck you_ , you scaly bastard!” Neil shouted. “I’m going to blow you to pieces!” His hands began to glow with magic, but Andrew kept him twisting about too much for him to fire off the spell. “Suh-stop it!”

/Hmm, no./

Dammit, Neil was getting dizzy, and his magic thrumming through him was _not_ helping; it was a lot more potent than normal, a lot more than he had thought he’d summoned for a joke. “I think you better-“

“Hey, I finished the – oh, _wow_!” Matt’s surprised laughter echoed around the large room. “That is always so fun to see, the two of you playing!”

Playing. He thought they were ‘playing’. They were… actually, Neil didn’t know what the hell they were doing – he wasn’t certain he wanted to know what they were doing, not when the magic roiling inside of him made it so difficult to think. “Andrew, put me down before I blow off the damn roof.”

“Huh? Holy Kana, don’t do that!” Matt said in a rush. “Not much is holding it up right now, even after everything I’ve done.”

Andrew’s tail tightened around Neil’s ankle, almost enough to hurt, and then Neil found himself slowly lowered down to the floor. Normally he’d use his hands to brace himself, but right then there was too much power thrumming through him so he couldn’t.

/Neil?/

“Outside,” Neil gritted out, and Andrew’s tail wrapped around him some more as his lover hurried out of the castle with a speed that was a surprise considering his large size. Neil thought he heard Matt come running after them, but all that mattered to him was the feel of Andrew’s scales wrapped around him, the sense of concern he picked up from his lover as he felt the press of Andrew’s mind against his own, as if Andrew was on the verge of speaking to him but didn’t push that last little bit.

The cold air felt so good against Neil’s flushed skin, was a relief against the churning, acid-like power building inside of him. The ability to destroy, to decimate and unmake, the power of death and annihilation that was his father’s birthright.

/Neil? You don’t… you don’t feel right./ Andrew’s tail twisted about to set Neil on his feet in the center of the courtyard.

Neil laughed a little at that as he stumbled forward, as he did his best to clear the wards. Behind him he heard Matt say something, but the power was growing too strong, was overwhelming everything. As soon as he felt himself pass the wards, he let the magic out, let it burst forward in a flash of silver, set it free away from Andrew… and felt lightheaded almost immediately. Felt hollow and drained, felt as if the power had taken everything from him except a darkness that swallowed him up.

He woke up to the feel of Andrew’s fingers in his hair, the blankets of their ‘bed’ tucked around him and an awful headache. “Ow.” The complaint came out in a low rasp, his throat dry and sore.

“It’s alive,” Andrew said, his tone a bit sarcastic but his eyes worried as he helped Neil to sit up. “If you throw up, I’m burning you along with the bedding,” he warned as he handed over a glass of water.

“Thu-thanks.” Neil sipped the water, the glass partially supported by his lover, and sighed when it was taken away; he slumped against Andrew and noticed that he was dressed in a different shirt than he’d put on after his bath, that and his underwear. “Uhm, what happened?”

“What do you remember?”

Neil hated it when people did this shit. “Reading to you, you being an asshole,” Andrew snorted at that, “us fighting….” He paused to close his eyes as he felt about for his magic and inhaled sharply when it rushed forward powerful enough that he had to struggle to tamp it back down. “My magic. Was just going to hit you with a simple spell, like always, but it got out of control.” Normally his spells might just sting his lover’s impenetrable hide a little, if at all, but whatever Neil had summoned earlier had felt too powerful, too dangerous to unleash against Andrew.

Andrew was quiet for a few seconds and then he pulled Neil against his left side. “You’ve been unconscious for over a day,” he said in a quiet voice, which made Neil stiffen against him. “After I got you outside, you went past the wards and then let loose the most powerful blast of your talent I’ve ever seen. You’ve cleared out a bit of the surrounding area in front of the castle.”

Neil heard what his lover was saying, but it took a moment or two for everything to sink in. “But that’s impossible. I should be left drained if that was the case.” He held up his trembling right hand and risked calling forth his power just long enough for his hand to begin to glow.

When Andrew went to touch his hand, Neil flinched and pulled it away, but Andrew moved too fast and caught it. “Don’t!”

“Why?” Andrew gave him an even look as he held Neil’s fingers between his own. “What are you afraid of?”

“What if something happens? I can still – I can feel it. It’s so much more powerful than normal for some reason.” He attempted to pull away again, but Andrew was too strong.

“So what? You’ve never hurt me before.”

“You’re usually covered with scales,” Neil reminded him. When all the bastard did was stare at him with cool hazel eyes, he huffed a little. “I don’t know what’s going on, dammit.”

“What else is new?” There was a hint of a smile on Andrew’s full lips when Neil made a growling sound and attempted to hit him.

“You’re an asshole.”

“Whatever.” Andrew pulled Neil toward him until he was straddling Andrew’s lap, during which time his expression smoothed out. “In all seriousness, you can’t hurt me.”

Neil shook his head. “I know my father’s power.” _His_ power. “Don’t ever make that assumption.”

Andrew slid his fingers into Neil’s hair. “But I know you,” he said as he held Neil’s gaze. “You can’t hurt me.”

“That’s…,” Neil sighed as he slumped forward enough to rest his forehead against his lover’s. “How can you be so confident about that?” Andrew knew the truth about Neil’s parents, about how they’d raised him.

“Because I _know_ you. If you haven’t managed to even scratch a single scale yet, you never will.” Andrew’s fingers rubbed at the back of Neil’s head, which felt good right then thanks to the headache. “No matter how many trees you destroy. Just leave the damn fruit trees alone or you’ll never get a hot bath again.”

Neil let out a pleased moan despite the threat and closed his eyes. “Even if my power is changing?” Which he didn’t want to think about, not really. Just another thing to not think about, one of many.

Andrew didn’t answer that, or at least not right away; he massaged Neil’s scalp a little longer and then pushed Neil off so they could stretch out on the bed, with Andrew pressed along Neil’s back. “Your birthday is coming up, isn’t it?”

Neil stilled at the reminder – Matt had tried to get them to celebrate the new year, had gone on about having a drink together and gathering around the fire while they told stories about their favorite memories of the past year until Andrew had threatened to roast the knight where he stood. That had just been a couple of weeks ago, right? Neil’s birthday should be in a few days, maybe less. His twentieth birthday.

“What are you thinking?” he asked as he tugged Andrew’s arm tighter around his chest.

“That perhaps there’s a reason why Riko sent all those knights after you this past fall. Maybe there’s something important about you turning twenty years old.”

Neil _really_ didn’t want to think about his talent and Riko just then. “Nothing that I know.”

“Hmm.” Andrew pulled him closer. “Whatever. He’s going to be disappointed.”

“Yeah.” Neil smiled at that, along with the feel of Andrew’s breath against the back of his neck, and allowed the sense of exhaustion he felt to pull him back to sleep. When it came time for the curse to re-exert itself over Andrew, Neil stirred awake and sat up in the bed with the blankets wrapped around him while his lover once more transformed into his golden dragon shape, then went to sit tucked up against Andrew’s left side for a little while. Once he was certain that his lover was fast asleep, he dressed then crept away with the one blanket still wrapped around him like a cloak to the kitchen.

The rising sun brightened the large room, making it easy for him to see everything. He’d have to wait for Andrew to wake up to light the massive oven/stove, but cold water helped to ease his sore throat and thirst just fine.

He made do with some bread (he'd have to bake more that day) and looked forward to when the weather got better and he could forage some eggs. Once again he debated raising some chickens, but it was bad enough keeping the horses when others visited and the semi-wild goats around Andrew, he wasn't certain how birds would react and gave up on the thought. Best to stick to what he could scavenge and whatever Andrew's family brought along. Between those two things, Neil already had a better, more regular diet than he'd had on the road with his mother.

It was just that they'd run out of sweet bread a couple of weeks ago, and he knew that Andrew missed it. At least they still had butter and whatever milk he got out of the goats, so he had a little of the first on the bread and checked the larder once more (it looked as if the stew and tarts from the other day was all gone, as well as most of the bread and another jar of preserves) before he was pulled out by a golden tail.

/What are you doing?/

"Good, you can be of use and light the oven. We need bread," Neil told his frowning lover (it was all in the way those glowing hazel eyes narrowed, and the thin trails of smoke streaming from the flared nostrils. Neil had become an expert in dragon facial gestures over their time together) while he gave the tail coiled around his middle a slight smack. "Come on, I need to gather a few things."

/You're not going outside,/ Andrew said, his tone rather absolute.

"No, I'm not," Neil sighed. "Though I'm sure the laundry needs done, too."

/The obnoxious one did it yesterday./

Neil smiled at Andrew's nickname for Matt and, once he was set on his feet, gathered everything he needed for the bread. The kitchen grew warm from both the oven blazing and Andrew's presence, and Neil was able to forget things for a while. At least until he was shaping the loaves and Matt came into the kitchen, dressed in a bright orange tunic and a worn pair of loose leggings. "You're awake." He seemed ready to come over to hug Neil or something, until Andrew wrapped his tail around Neil. "That's a relief. You gave us a scare after you blew up half the mountain and then passed out."

"Wait, what?" Neil craned his neck to look up at Andrew. "Half the mountain?"

/The moron exaggerates./

"Not by much," Matt argued, then yelped when he got a small lick of flame blown his way. "Ouch!"

Neil swatted at his lover. "Let me see." When all Andrew did was hold on to him, he let out a low growl of frustration. "Let me see it!"

/You're annoying,/ Andrew proclaimed even as he lifted up Neil and carried him toward the large door leading outside, which he nudged open.

At first the courtyard looked normal, albeit a bit bare of snow. And then Neil realized that there was a huge hole in the trees that used to ring the fort, a huge gaping hole that looked as if - he didn't know what it looked like. As if something had taken an immense bite out of the mountain, had swallowed up the trees and the earth and the rock beneath for a couple of hundred yards. "Oh... fuck."

/I'm thinking it might scare off a few idiot knights,/ Andrew said as he turned around to take them back inside. Once in the kitchen, he set Neil on the counter and then gave his chest a gentle 'thwap' with the tip of his tail. /Drink some tea./

"That's more than a few dozen trees," Neil said, the image of all that destruction stuck in his mind.

/So?/ Andrew rested the tip of his heavy head on Neil's lap. /Not fruit trees so I don't care. Nothing's changed, so drink your tea and finish my bread. I'm hungry and the obnoxious one is looking tasty./

"Wait, is he talking about me?" Matt asked, from where he was hovering a few feet away.

Despite his fears, Neil summoned a smile as he ran his fingers over his lover's smooth scales; they were tiny and so soft on Andrew's 'face'. "All right, get your ugly mug off my lap so I can move."

Of course that earned Neil a cloud of smoke blown on him, but he was used to it at that point. Sometimes he swore he couldn't breathe if half the air wasn't dragon smoke. Oh yes, Fate enjoyed its little tricks on him....

Neil fixed another cup of tea and washed his hands so he could finish shaping the bread to let it rise a little when Matt sidled over to him. "I ah, sent a message to Renee." Somehow, he had a charm or something that let him communicate with the paladin, but not too often. "Told her about what happened," that provoked a displeased growl from Andrew, "and she said she'll do a little research," Matt continued as he met Andrew's glowing eyes. "She thinks it might be tied to your father's bloodline."

"Great." Neil swiped flour-covered hands over his eyes, and then sighed when his fingers brushed against the raven brand on his left cheek, as he remembered the brief conversation with Andrew last night. His lover must have caught the gesture, because he was once more picked up and carried out of the kitchen.

"You know, one day I'm going to forget how to walk, if you keep doing this so much."

/So little brains in there, I'm surprised you even remember how to do that much,/ Andrew said, which made Neil smile despite himself; he knew when his lover was angry with him and only too willing to verbally show that displeasure, and when Andrew was using words to shake Neil out of his often destructive thoughts. It was much too often a case of the latter, so he rarely took offense at the jabs - okay, he might get annoyed but it didn't last long.

"How did you get those tarts out of the oven again, hmm?"

"Ah, I did, right before they started to burn," Matt admitted as he followed them into the main room. That earned him a disgruntled look from Andrew, but he'd been getting a lot of them over the last couple of months and so ignored it. "Sorry for intruding, but Renee wanted a little more information to make finding out a few things easier." He aimed that more at Neil than Andrew. "I'd think that you'd want this figured out as soon as possible, right?"

Neil patted Andrew's side to show that it was fine when his lover settled them on their pile of pillows near the large bay of windows. "I don't want to hurt anyone," he admitted. "But I don't know what all I can tell you, to be honest. I didn't spend that much time with my father - my mother took me from him when I was ten years old and she found out that he'd promised me to Riko Moriyama." He was grateful for Andrew's wing curling around him just then, urging him to tuck against his lover's left side and covering him like a soft, charmed blanket. "I didn't see him again until I had just turned seventeen, when he finally caught up to us," when he killed Neil's mother, "and he immediately handed me over to the Moriyamas." Neil closed his eyes for a moment as the memories washed through him, of his mother's desperate fight, his father's cruel smile, of him using what both parents had taught him in vain because there had been too many people to fight against, people who had been stronger than him at the time. The feel of the warded chains on his wrists to subdue his talent, the promise from his father to hamstring him if he ever ran again.

Andrew nuzzling his head broke him from the memories and made him take a deep breath scented by smoke and the dry, musky scent of his lover's scales, underlain with the faint tang of Andrew's fire magic. "Then I was at the Raven’s Nest for almost a year, and made my way here." He didn't want to think about those months in the Nest, about Riko trying to - no, not going there.

Matt stared at him with blatant sympathy while he toyed with the hilt of the knife on his belt; Andrew didn't let him wear his broadsword in the fort. "The Moriyamas. Why did your dad-" Something in Neil's expression made Matt shake his head. "Why were you engaged to Riko? No one knew about you until a couple of years ago."

Neil stroked his fingers along the supple material of Andrew's wing, which provoked a faint murmur from his lover. "I got the impression that my dad owed Kengo something - I don't know if it was an old debt or a promise or what." He didn't want to know, really. "I just knew I was supposed to go to them and do much what my dad does," that made Matt wince, "except to protect the Moriyama family." He hadn't known that last part until later, though.

"Like they need any more power," Matt muttered as he forced his hand away from the knife. "Okay, thanks for that." He gave Neil a sheepish grin. "I'll pass it on to Renee later, I'm sure it'll help. She told me she'd talk to Kevin, see what he knows, considering-" He grimaced a little there.

Considering that Kevin had lived with the Moriyamas for over ten years, there was a good chance that he might know something. "Yeah," Neil agreed as he shivered a little, despite the heat pouring off of Andrew.

"Maybe there was a reason he wanted us to look in on you. If so, Renee will get it out of him." Matt gave a slight wave as he turned away. "I'm going to go check on Tundra and then the snares, see if I can't figure them out by myself, okay? Be back in a couple of hours."

In other words, he was trying to give them a bit of space, or something like that. Neil blinked at the knight as he left, his right hand coming up to wave a little in return until he got a tail in his face.

/You’re going to starve tonight, you do know that./

Neil sputtered as he shoved the tail aside. “And what about you?”

/I’m going to have some bread,/ Andrew said with a good bit of smugness.

“Seriously, I’m your personal servant first, right? Somewhere way behind that is the fact that we have some sort of relationship, but first and foremost, you’ve got someone to boss around.” Neil glared up at the tyrant as he fought off the flickering tip of Andrew’s tail.

Andrew gave him a long stare for several seconds. /We have a relationship? I don’t think so./

“Oh go to hell,” Neil snapped, and then laughed as his chin got flicked by the bastard’s tail. “No bread for you!” He attempted to shove away from his lover, only to be enfolded in Andrew’s wing. “I should let them burn, just for that.”

/Then I’ll let _you_ burn./ Andrew blew more smoke at him, his long neck twisted around so he could look down on Neil. /Hardly take any effort./

“Yeah, yeah, throw in some short jokes while you’re at it. Just wait until sundown.” Neil could feel his talent tingling through his body as they teased each other, could feel it eager to be called upon, to be put to use. He frowned as he closed his eyes and forced it to die back down, to settle in his bones and blood; it had never been this volatile before, never so close to the surface.

/Neil?/

He tilted his head to the side so he could better hear Andrew’s heartbeat. “It’s almost as if it’s alive with the way it’s craving to be used. It’s never been like this.” He’d always been fine ignoring his magic before.

Andrew nuzzled his hair again. /Read to me until the bread is done./

That he could do. Neil smiled at the more or less command and went to fetch the book from the previous day, and got a few more (boring) chapters in-between putting the bread in and out of the oven. Andrew insisted on eating a couple of loaves right away, steam rising from them and honey melting into their crevices, while Neil sat on the counter and enjoyed some tea. It wasn’t long after that when Matt came back in with a couple of rabbits and a quail, of all things, which he held out to Neil with a queasy smile. Neil sighed as he went to take care of them, which left Andrew to mock the poor knight.

There was another stew that night, and Andrew ate the quail along with more honey-sweetened bread (Neil still didn’t understand how his lover’s weird diet worked, but didn’t care because it was already difficult enough to keep him fed as it was without him requiring whole cows or whatever real dragons needed every other day). Before the sun went down, the two of them were in their room, where Andrew could shift back to his human form in safety and privacy. Neil waited for him while sitting with his legs tucked beneath him on the bed, a jug of apple brandy beside him, and smiled when his lover stretched out on the bed beside him.

Andrew had some of the brandy and then set the jug aside before tugging Neil down, and then they spent some very pleasurable time together forgetting about curses and bloodlines and magic. Neil wished that they had more time together like that, when Andrew could narrow down Neil’s world to what his hands and mouth were doing, and Neil could bring an expression resembling peace to his lover’s face when Andrew rested his forehead against Neil’s left shoulder.

They rested together for a few moments before they went to the bathing room to clean up, and snuggled up on the bed together (as much as Andrew ‘snuggled’) when they were done. Despite being tired, they didn’t fall asleep right away. “You said that Riko was waiting until you were eighteen to marry you.”

And there went the contentment that Neil had been feeling; anything to do with Riko was just as upsetting to him as his father. “He was waiting until I was an adult.”

A rare laugh bubbled up from Andrew’s broad chest, which was pressed against Neil’s back. However the sound wasn’t amused, it was jagged with derision. “Riko? The man who branded you? Who sliced you up? Who starved you and cut off your magic? He was going to let a little thing like you being underage hold him back?”

Neil shivered at the words, at the memories they provoked, until Andrew’s fingers combed through his hair; that had been almost cruel, what his lover had done, but Andrew had proven his point. “So why, then? Why wait?” He remembered the way Riko had looked at him, as if he was a possession. The way Riko’s hands would stroke along his skin in-between inflicting pain. The pride the bastard had taken when he’d cast the spell that had burned the raven onto Neil’s face.

Andrew pulled Neil closer to him. “Some spells need to be done right for them to be effective.”

Why did it always come back to magic? For most people, it was only a small part of their world, were the charms they bought to make their lives easier, maybe one or two people in their villages with enough ‘real’ talent to cast any major spells. “So what do you think he’s trying to do?”

“Probably some way to keep you under control. No sense in handing over a weapon if there’s no way to make sure it does what you want it to do.”

Neil let out a long sigh. “Say some more nice things to me, why don’t you?”

“All right, you’re an idiot.”

Despite everything, Neil laughed. “Yeah, that works.” Neil closed his eyes as he decided to give in to his sense of exhaustion, once more content with Andrew’s arm around him and breath on the back of his neck.

The contentment lasted until the curse resumed, when Neil was reminded just how much power magic had over his and Andrew’s lives. He didn’t know what was happening with his own talent or what it would take to break Andrew’s curse, but he did believe that they would find out together.

He spent some time with Andrew in dragon form, as always, before getting ready for the day and going out to the kitchen, where he had some water and bread before roaming around the fort while the early morning sun filtered through the windows – windows that Matt had somehow cleaned with his talent. It was amazing what one bored and energetic earth elemental could do.

He was staring at the mostly restored second floor when Matt came up to join him. “So the wooden floors are almost done.” Matt gave him a sheepish grin as he rubbed the back of his head. “Renee said that Wymack’s never going to let me live this down – he doesn’t want to hear about me not being powerful enough anymore.”

“I think it’s more a case of you being bored enough,” Neil said.

“That’s more likely.” Matt came a bit closer, until he was next to Neil. “I talked to Renee. She has a theory about what’s going on.”

“Ah.” Neil stared out at the restored floor for a few more seconds. “Let’s go downstairs, I don’t feel like taking cold baths for the next week.”

“Eh?” Matt gave him a puzzled look.

“Andrew needs to hear this.”

“Right!” Matt shook his head as he followed Neil. “He really looks after you, Renee was right about that.”

Neil didn’t say anything, he just gave a slight shrug, which made Matt’s grin widen – at least for a moment. “The two of you really are unusual, you know that? I’ve come across a few cursed individuals in my time, and none of them have such a strong sense of self as he does.” Matt rubbed at the inside of his left arm as he stared ahead, his expression almost bleak for some reason. “Curses tend to eat you up from the inside, to wear you down until they take over, but he’s still himself, isn’t he?”

“For the most part,” Neil agreed, puzzled by the change in the knight. “Or so Nicky and Aaron tell me. Some of the dragon nature bleeds through.”

“And you, you really don’t care about what you gave up?”

Neil gave the knight a blank look. “What about you, du Boyd?” He wasn’t that familiar with all of the nobility and wealthy families, but he thought that the du Boyds were a line of famous healers – which explained Matt’s affinity with earth.

Matt had the grace to appear sheepish, mostly restored to his normal self. “There’s some things more important than money and a life of comfort, my mother taught me that.”

“Exactly.”

“Yep, you two are unusual, I can see why you made such a strong impression on Dan and Renee. I have to say, it’s been anything but boring, these last few weeks.”

“You just can’t wait to get back to Palmetto and tell everyone about how you were used for slave labor,” Neil said as they went down the steps.

Matt’s laughter was a deep, boisterous thing, which for some reason always conveyed a sense of warmth to Neil. He hadn’t met many people like the tall knight in his lifetime, someone so genuine and earnest. It was probably best he hadn’t met Matt when he’d been Nathaniel.

Andrew wasn’t downstairs, but since the oven had been started, Neil took that to mean that his lover was out doing a quick check of the area around the castle and put on the kettle so they could have some tea while they waited. The tea had just been poured when Andrew returned, bringing in a burst of cold air and some snowflakes with him.

“More snow?” Neil complained.

/Yes, at this point we’re never getting rid of the obnoxious one./ Andrew huffed sparks at a bemused Matt before he more or less settled near Neil’s feet like a humongous cat. A golden, humongous, hairless cat.

“Ah, you like me, just admit it,” Matt said as he attempted to inch over for a cup of tea, only to be blocked by Andrew.

/No, I don’t./ Andrew bared an impressive mouthful of very sharp fangs at the knight.

Matt apparently decided he didn’t want the cup of tea.

Neil sighed as he rested his bare feet on his lover, then sighed again, that time in pleasure as the heat soaked into his soles. “He has a message for us, from Renee. Play nice.”

/Who’s playing?/ Andrew asked, but he more or less settled down, so Neil sipped his tea while he nodded at Matt.

Matt gave a wistful look at the teapot before he took a deep breath. “All right, so Renee got together with Betsy, who studies some, uhm.” He paused to wave his left hand about in the air. “She knows some obscure stuff, okay? And she’s really good to talk to about things, but that’s something else. Anyway, they looked up some things and talked to Kevin, whom I guess had a reason to be all worried about you, Neil.”

That didn’t sound good. It seemed that Andrew felt the same way.

/Oh? Pray tell us what made Lord Day send out a couple of pests while he hid all safe and sound at that castle of yours back in Palmetto?/ Andrew blew out a huff of smoke as he stared down at Matt.

For a moment anger darkened Matt’s complexion, and then he shook his head. “I’m not going to get into it over Kevin, all right? He’s an asshole, but that’s not the point. What is, right now, is that Renee and Betsy think that Riko needs to get his hands on Neil and ah, ‘seal’ some sort of compact with him if he wants to control Neil’s power.”

It was a good thing that Neil hadn’t been drinking the tea just then. “Wait, what?” He set the cup down with trembling hands. “What do you mean, ‘seal a compact’?”

Andrew huffed out some more smoke. /This is because of his demon blood, right?/

Neil flinched at hearing his father’s bloodline being ‘spoken’ about so openly, while Matt nodded. “Yeah. Betsy’s willing to bet that there’s some sort of contract between Neil’s father and the Moriyama line, which explains why someone so powerful is their vassal. It might also make him hand over his firstborn child or something like that, too.”

“I don’t think I want to hear this,” Neil said as he rubbed at the brand on his cheek.

/You don’t have a choice,/ Andrew told him, even as he wrapped his tail around Neil’s waist. /So why is Riko being such a prick? Why didn’t he just force Neil to swear fealty to him, too?/

Neil shuddered at the thought of that happening, of being forced to obey Riko’s commands until the bastard died.

“Maybe because being a vassal doesn’t make Nathan entirely controllable? Either Riko or someone around him decided that there might be a better way to make Neil biddable.” Matt gave Neil a sympathetic look. “Like swearing to bind himself to Riko as one half of a whole? Though I’m willing to bet Riko would twist the vows in his favor.”

“Fuck.” Neil jerked his hands through his hair. “Something like that – it might even give him access to my power.”

/Hence why he would need you to be an adult. There would have to be some illusion of consent behind the whole thing, for the gods to bless it./ Andrew’s tail tightened around Neil’s waist. /But what is happening now?/

“Betsy thinks that Neil’s ‘adulthood’ was delayed a little because of his demon blood,” Matt explained. “So now’s really the best time for….” Matt’s voice drifted off as he winced and waved his hand about again.

For Riko to ‘claim’ what he thought was his, as promised by Nathan Wesninski. For him to continue to send his knights to the fort in order to capture Neil and drag him away, to attack Andrew and possibly hurt Neil’s lover.

“Renee thinks that maybe with your bloodline being so strong, you have to have a contract. It might be the only way to control your talent,” Matt added.

“No,” Neil breathed out while he shook his head. “This can’t be happening.”

“You should be fine until spring, right?” Matt said. “Renee said she and Betsy will keep looking into things, see if they can’t figure out some sort of solution.”

“No,” Neil repeated.

/You’ve been of little help,/ Andrew snapped as he picked up Neil. /Go away./ As he spoke, he shoved past Matt to take Neil into the main room, where they curled up on their nest of pillows. Neil felt a bit bad for how his lover had treated the knight who _had_ been of assistance, but all he cared about just then was hiding beneath Andrew’s wing and listening to his lover’s heartbeat while his lover swore that Riko would never touch him again.

He would figure out something soon enough, would face down the knights Riko sent to their home, but it felt good to lie there with Andrew and pretend that his father couldn’t still fuck up his life when the bastard was so far away. When no matter how much he changed and everything he left behind, there would always be a part of Nathan Wesninski inside of Neil, something dark and evil and tainted.

Things were fine by afternoon, when the shadows began to lengthen, so they had the leftover stew and Matt complained about how he thought his horse was getting fat by being ridden so little all winter, to which Andrew said fine, they could eat the beast. Since they were stuck with the knight because of Matt refusing to leave Tundra behind (and the horse was too much for Andrew to carry, at least alive), the ‘joke’ (Neil refused to think of it as anything other than a joke) didn’t go over very well.

Perhaps things weren’t entirely fine. He foresaw a lot of being carried about in the next few days and rubbed at his belly while he sighed. _Dragons_. Did anyone else have to put up with this? Or was it just him? On second thought, he probably didn’t want to know.

Fate did indeed hate him.

The snow stopped by the following morning, which meant more of Matt’s amusement while Neil cursed and attempted to get out to the snares, and even Andrew joined in while he watched from a high advantage point on top of the castle. Neil was ready to forego cooking for a few days to teach the assholes a lesson, except he’d have to listen to the two whine, one of them in his head.

Just another month or so, Neil told himself. An early winter might mean an early thaw, then Matt could get on his fat horse and Nicky and Aaron could return to work on Andrew’s curse with the spell they’d spent all winter working on. Neil concentrated on those thoughts as he made dinner the one night.

He refused to think about Riko’s people just then. He’d have to, eventually, but Andrew had told him to stay, so he would. It was a problem they’d deal with together.

Neil and Matt were out one overcast day, Neil with his bow and arrows and Matt of course with his broadsword and assorted weapons, in hopes to catch a small deer since they both were getting tired of rabbit. That and another storm was coming, if the ominous clouds in the distance were any indication, so best to get something that would last them a few days. Neil thought they’d find something in a small grove not too far from the fort, and was using an illusion spell to hide him and Matt as they hid among the spare, bare trees.

That was how the three Moriyama knights missed seeing them as they came into the grove, dressed in thick black cloaks trimmed with red fur. One of them, a knight almost as tall as Matt but bulkier, did something to force the snow to part before him like it was water, which explained how they had made it up the mountain despite it being winter – he was a powerful water elemental. Neil couldn’t get a feel for the other two, but it would make sense if one of them was air, then they could help mitigate some of the effects of the bad weather. That or fire, but it wouldn’t make sense to send another fire elemental against one so powerful.

Matt reached over to touch Neil’s left arm and shared a look with him, and Neil shook his head. He motioned back at the castle and hoped they could sneak home, to the wards, before anything happened.

Andrew happened.

Why wasn’t Neil surprised that his lover was watching for him from some vantage point, especially with the bad weather? All he knew was that he and Matt had barely taken a dozen steps, Neil casting furiously so the illusion distorted the sound of Matt tromping through the snow, when there was the familiar beat of wings through the rustling wind.

/Oh, look, it’s lunch./

 _Fuck_.

Neil spun around, the illusion dropping out of concern, and saw the tallest of the three knights smile as he pushed back the hood of his cloak. “Not quite, I hear lizard meat is awful. But thanks, for saving us from hiking any further.”

Andrew landed in-between Neil and the knights. /du Boyd, keep him safe or I really am eating your horse, then turning you into a lump of charcoal./

Matt beamed as he unsheathed his broadsword. “I got this!” Moron was probably pleased about Andrew saying his name for once, Neil thought while he glared at both of them.

“I can-“

/Remember what I said about the fruit trees,/ Andrew told Neil, right before he let loose a blast of fire at the Raven knights.

Neil hated being right – air and water, which were quite effective in matching Andrew, in dealing with his fire. The two knights – the tall, burly guy and a woman who reminded him of Dan held off Andrew, while the third knight, another man but of a slimmer build than the water elemental, came charging right at Neil and Matt.

Neil began to raise his bow, but Matt, the _moron_ , went charging at the knight, so there went that idea. Neil debated letting off the shot for the hell of it, he was that pissed off at the moment, then forced himself to lower the weapon. Fine, he’d just stand there and let everyone else fight. Not like he had anything better to do, right? No, he’d just watch three enemy knights try to kill his lover and his friend.

He definitely wasn’t cooking the bastards any dinner that night.

“You can appease Prince Riko’s displeasure by ending your resistance and coming- coming along willingly,” the burly knight called out, right before he got smacked onto his ass by Andrew’s tail. Probably a couple of broken ribs, too. Neil hoped there were some broken ribs.

“Riko can appease himself by shoving a sword up his ass,” Neil called out a he slung the unstrung bow over his chest. “In front of his court.” Then he began to summon his magic – his father’s magic, because he was a little upset at the moment. Just a little.

/That’s a ‘no’,/ Andrew clarified as he picked up a small boulder and used that to batter at the other knight’s air shield.

“And I happen to have the perfect sword for him to use,” Matt offered as he swiped said sword along his opponent’s back; for someone so big, he had a surprising amount of speed and grace while on his feet.

Neil slipped past the two fighting knights and approached his lover, and didn’t blink when Andrew wrapped him up in golden coils of prehensile tail. “I’m never going to ‘appease’ that sadistic prick, I’m never going to give him what he wants, and I’m never going to see him again unless it’s to blow a hole in his chest. I’d say pass that on to him, but I’m done with this. I’m done with you.” He was done with people coming to his home and threatening his new life, his lover, so he unleashed his magic. That time, he didn’t pass out, but it was close.

/Hmph, you cut that a bit close to the fruit trees, but acceptable./

Neil slammed his still glowing fists onto his lover’s tail, while the two knights wavered where they stood, the water elemental falling to his knees, as they stared at the swath of destruction that Neil’s magic had caused. Behind Neil, he heard a mumbled prayer from the knight Matt had been fighting.

“Tell your prince,” he sneered at the title while he used his fury at Riko to push back the exhaustion, “that the next fools he sends won’t be as lucky as you three. I’m not holding back any longer,” Neil promised. He’d resisted turning into his father all these years, but sometimes one had to go that extra step to protect something precious.

/Neil…./

“It’s okay,” he whispered to Andrew. “I’m not running anymore.”

/I won’t let them take you,/ Andrew told him as he set Neil between his forelegs.

Meanwhile, Matt came over and shoved the shocked third knight, more than a bit battered and bloody, toward his other companions. “And tell Prince Riko that there’s not anything here for him anyway.” At Neil’s confused look, he grinned. “Neil’s long been taken, he’s not single anymore.”

The burly knight stared at Neil in disgust while the woman knight shook her head. “Just kill us now, we can’t tell Prince Riko that!”

/I don’t care,/ Andrew informed her. /You have four hours to get off my mountain or else. I’ll be watching you./

It looked as if the knights wanted to argue, but one puff of smoke from Andrew, a bit of silver around Neil’s hands and Matt raising his sword got them onto their feet and stumbling back the way they came. Andrew instructed Matt to take Neil back to the castle while he lazily took to the air with the intentions of following the knights.

The two of them watched the bedraggled and decidedly odd procession for a minute or two before Matt wiped his sword clean with a rag from a pouch on his belt then returned it to its sheathe. “Well, that was fun! Haven’t had a good workout in weeks.”

“You can always go get your horse and follow them back down while there’s still a path,” Neil offered; he was a bit surprised that Andrew hadn’t suggested that, unless he was hoping to drop a knight or two off into the frigid lake while Neil wasn’t around to object.

“Nah, Tundra’s enjoying his extended vacation and I haven’t quite finished with the roof,” Matt said. “Want the place all done before I leave.”

“You do realize that Andrew’s kicking you out as soon as the snow starts to melt.” Neil gave the knight a bland look when all Matt did was shrug. “Seriously, you’re gone.” He’d put up with enough cold baths keeping Matt in the castle to that point.

Matt tried the big eye look on him at that point, and when Neil held up a glowing silver hand, laughed and shook his head. “Nah, it’s all right, I’ll be happy to see Dan soon enough and get back to Palmetto. Just don’t trust being near those three Raven knights for that long,” he added with a grimace of distaste.

Well, Neil couldn’t blame him for that; they returned to the castle in silence, and Neil figured out that they’d just have to make do with whatever was in the larder for dinner since Andrew wouldn’t be pleased if he went back out for dinner. That and with all of the magic unleashed out there in the past hour, he doubted that there were too many animals wandering around.

Andrew returned after a couple of hours; Neil had spent some of that time strengthening the wards and was watching Matt clean his broadsword in main hall. His lover came in, started a fire in the huge hearth and then wrapped himself around Neil, who was sitting on the pile of pillows.

“Knights on their way home?” Neil asked as he leaned against Andrew’s warm side, more than a little exhausted at the moment.

/A good way down the mountain,/ Andrew said. /I gave them some added incentive to speed them along./

Neil didn’t ask, not when Andrew radiated such smugness just then. “Think they’ll be back?”

/Not without reinforcements./ Andrew’s wing tucked around Neil while he craned his neck so he could look at Matt. /What did you mean by that bit of nonsense you told them?/

Matt smiled as he put his sword away. “So Riko wants Neil because of the promise Neil’s father made, right?” He glanced over at Neil, at the left side of Neil’s face, before he looked up at Andrew. “But it seems obvious to me that Neil’s already chosen who he’s going to spend his life with, right?”

Andrew blew out a bit of smoke at that while Neil felt his face heat up. “Uhm, well, we’re just… oh gods,” Neil mumbled as he rubbed at his eyes.

That earned a laugh from Matt. “It got me thinking, what Renee said about there having to be a covenant of some kind to keep Neil’s power in check. Why should Riko have it? What if Neil gave it to someone he trusted, hmm?”

/So you’re proposing we what?/ There was quietness to Andrew’s voice that made Neil wince.

“It’s up to the two of you, really.” Matt gathered up his sword and the oiled cloth he’d been using to clean it, his expression now serious. “But there’s always handfasting, since we’re up in the middle of nowhere without a paladin or any type of priests or priestess. Could buy you some time until you make it official, if that’s what you want.” Then he left them alone.

Neil and Andrew were quiet for several minutes after the knight’s departure, the only sound that of the crackling of the fire and Andrew’s raspy breathing. Then he let out a loud snort that sent sparks flying about. /It would keep you from blowing up the fruit trees./

“Enough about the damn fruit trees,” Neil said as he jerked his right hand through his hair. “Do you know what it means? You’d be tied to me, me and my power and-“ Andrew’s wing pressing against him cut him off.

/You said you weren’t leaving. Did you mean that?/

Neil took a deep breath. “Yes.”

/It seems to me that there’s more of a risk for you – you’re giving me control of your magic, you’re tying yourself to _me_ , when I’m like this./ Andrew let out a few more sparks. /We don’t even know if the curse can be broken./

“Well, I can’t say that I imagined my future spouse as having a tail for half the day,” Neil admitted as he tilted his head back to look Andrew in the eyes. He hadn’t really imagined having any spouse, to be honest, not with his parents, not after his mother had taught him how bad it was to trust someone, not when he’d failed to want anyone – and then he’d met Andrew. Then a ‘little’ thing like Andrew being a dragon didn’t matter. “But I suppose I can overlook it.”

The tail in question came around to tap him on the head. /And I’d be stuck with an idiot. Maybe the curse is two-fold./

“Do you want to be handfasted or not?” Neil asked as he narrowed his eyes at the tyrant. “I can always wait until Nicky returns and see about- what now?” Neil glared as he ended up being dangled in the air.

/It’ll take too long for me to find another cook, so we’ll do it. Come on, I’m hungry./

Torn between amusement and outrage, Neil ended up just scrubbing at his face. “I knew it, you _do_ think of me as your personal servant.”

/You suck at cleaning./

It wasn’t like Neil had lied and stolen _that_ much, had he? Back when he’d been on the run? So why did Fate hate him so much?

He told Matt over their dinner of dried jerky, bread, and cheese that they would go through the ceremony, but after the sun went down (it was bad enough that the knights would tell Riko and everyone else that he was handfasted to a dragon, he at least wanted the actual ceremony to happen while Andrew was in human form even if people would think the worst). Matt appeared excited about that, since it would be the first time he’d see Andrew in human form, despite staying at the castle for the past couple of months.

Once the sun went down and the curse lost (most of) its power over Andrew, he put on some clothes and went to the main hall with Neil, where Matt was waiting for them as their witness for the simple ceremony. Matt was dressed in his best tunic, a white one trimmed with orange and bearing Palmetto’s fox head sigil, and gaped at the sight of Andrew.

“Wow, you’re really sho-“ He cleared his throat and blinked at the scowl Andrew gave him. “Uhm, you’re really sure you want to go through this?”

“Yes,” Andrew said, his deep voice ringing out through the large room; he had dressed in a simple black tunic over loose pants, and his blond hair gleamed in the flickering light thrown from the fire.

Neil nodded in agreement as he stood beside his lover, and did his best not to fidget with the hem of his grey tunic.

“All right. It’s probably best for you to say your own vows, so you know what you’re getting into,” Matt told them as he stepped forward with a long strip of orange cloth held out in his hands. “I, ah, it’s from my cloak.” He shrugged a little as he motioned toward their hands.

It was a little awkward for a moment, and then Neil and Andrew grasped each other’s right hand. Matt began to wrap the orange material around their clasped hands. “So you’re gathered together in front of the gods to pledge yourselves together.”

After a slight nod from Matt, Andrew sighed then began to speak while he stared at Neil, his fingers warm around Neil’s hand. “I promise to protect you always. I’ll be there for you.”

Matt stared at Andrew as if waiting for more than that, but nothing else was forthcoming; Neil smiled at his lover and knew what was behind those words, knew what Andrew meant with the offer to never leave him, to give that unconditional protection. “I promise to never leave, to stay beside you always, to fight your fights,” that earned him a slight frown, but Neil wasn’t going to let Andrew deal with Riko alone, “and lend you my magic so you’re never without,” Neil said. They’d discussed how best to phrase that, how to give Andrew a way to rein in Neil’s magic but not give away Neil’s freedom.

Again Matt waited for something more, for some other sort of declaration and then sighed. “So, you both are pledging yourselves to each other, right?” He appeared disappointed with them for some reason.

“Yes, I am,” Andrew said, his tone a bit snappish as if Matt was a moron.

“Yes, I am,” Neil echoed. Wasn’t it obvious?

“Then I- ah!” All three of them blinked as the orange strips around Neil’s and Andrew’s hands glowed for several seconds; Neil thought he felt some odd pull against his magic during that time, and then it vanished. “Oh yeah, consider yourself handfasted,” Matt said with evident satisfaction. “Even if those are some of the least romantic vows I’ve ever heard.”

Andrew gave him a flat look as he used his power to burn the material to ash. “Whatever, it worked. Riko can’t claim Neil now.”

Matt gave Andrew an offended look. “Did you just miss the point of – never mind,” he sighed. “And technically, you have a year and a day to fend off Riko with this ceremony. By then you better have made it official.”

“That or have killed him,” Neil countered.

Now Matt was giving Neil a hurt look for some reason. “Really? After what just happened? Can’t the two of you… I don’t know, be happy?”

It had been a long day, there was more snow currently being dumped on them, the possibility of Riko sending more knights before spring, and Neil had just unexpectedly been handfasted. Well, the last wasn’t too bad a thing since he actually liked the person he was quasi-married to (unlike his previous engagement), it was just that it had been rather sudden. ‘Happy’ would probably take a few days.

“Come on, there’s some apple brandy in the bedroom,” Andrew said as he tugged Neil in that direction.

That could help speed things along, too.

Neil waved to Matt as he was all but dragged off to the bedroom, where he had a few sips of the potent brandy once he settled on the bed. It wasn’t long before he ended up resting against the pillows with Andrew half against his chest while his lover drank. “Do you feel anything different?” he asked.

Andrew frowned as he set the jug aside. “There was something toward the end there.” His right hand settled on his chest. “An odd spark inside.”

Did it have something to do with his talent, Neil wondered. But before he could concentrate on it, Andrew shifted about until he was straddling Neil’s lap. “So, we’re tied together.” He picked up Neil’s right hand and held it in his own.

“Yeah, so it seems.” Neil smiled up at him. “A year and a day.”

Andrew’s eyes narrowed as he toyed with the laces on Neil’s tunic. “Thought you said ‘always’.”

“I seem to remember you saying the same.” Neil wet his lips before he slowly reached out to press his hand against Andrew’s chest. “No more running.”

“You stay and I’ll protect you,” Andrew agreed. “Should be simple enough for an idiot like you to understand.”

“Andrew… now would be a good time to shut up,” Neil said as he leaned forward to kiss the tyrant.

“Definitely adding to the vows next time,” Andrew muttered as he pulled on Neil’s hips until he was lying down more on the bed. “One of silence.”

Neil wondered just how much more Fate would hate him for murdering his handfasted partner within an hour of their ceremony… at least until Andrew’s hands slipped beneath his tunic and he decided the bastard got to live a little longer. Wasn’t there supposed to be something special about first nights and all? He’d give Andrew some time to prove that to him before he did anything hasty.

Maybe the whole ‘stay’ thing wouldn’t be so bad now, he thought as his lover tugged off his tunic.

*******

**Author's Note:**

> *******  
> And that's this part of the Dragon!Andrew story! I really thought they'd do the handfasting in the next part, but it sorta forced its way here. Hmph. But then this part of the story just went on and on and ON, I'm sorta not surprised. 
> 
> Still, enjoy the sorta fluffiness of it. Armies 12 is up next (if I'm not too far behind because of this being so darn long and me getting a bit of the Necromancer Andrew fic up on tumblr).
> 
> *******


End file.
